Futility Closet

At the turn of the 20th century, a rogue tiger terrorized the villages of Nepal and northern India. By the time British hunter Jim Corbett was called in, it had killed 434 people. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Corbett's pursuit of the elusive cat, and his enlightened efforts to address the source of the problem. We'll also revisit a Confederate spy and puzzle over a bloody ship. Intro: Ralph Beaman devised a sentence that ends with 15 prepositions. The stones of Pennsylvania's Ringing Rocks Park chime when struck. Sources for our feature on the Champawat tiger: Jim Corbett, Man-Eaters of Kumaon, 1944. Dane Huckelbridge, No Beast So Fierce: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Man-Eater in History, 2019. Hemanta Mishra, Bones of the Tiger: Protecting the Man-Eaters of Nepal, 2010. Nayanika Mathur, Paper Tiger, 2016. Sujeet Kumar Singh, et al., "Understanding Human–Tiger Conflict Around Corbett Tiger Reserve India: A Case Study Using Forensic G